The Second Wave

Thirteen Boston Companies Raised $632M Last Week

The Second Wave

I’m finally getting around to scraping deal data from this newsletter (which I should have been doing all along).

It’s not perfect yet, but I think 2020 deals are cleaned up enough to see that things are really taking off. Hoping to curate the data some more and show coverage on enterprise vs consumer, top investors, etc. Look at this:

I thought the deal graph looked eerily similar to this one:

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

- Nick

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Stuff I’m Reading:

• Market Definitions and Tech Monopolies — Ben Evans

• How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps — Vice

• Techstars Boston Doubles Down on Deep Tech & Marketplaces — Techstars

• Sequencing Business Models: Types of Marketplaces — Casey Winters

• Contrary Capital is Hosting a Boston Pitch Competition

Barbarians at Amazon’s Gate

My post last Monday was about a European FBA acquirer that may have just raised the largest seed round in Europe at $65M. It only took a few days for that record to be broken as Berlin-based SellerX raised a $118M seed and SF-based HeyDay exited stealth mode and announced a $175M raise from General Catalyst and Khosla Ventures.

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Boston Tech VC Financing:

Klaviyo 📧

Email marketing giant Klaviyo has raised a $200M Series C at a $4.15B valuation, led by Accel and joined by Summit Partners. The eight-year-old company bootstrapped for three years, then raised a $1.5M seed in 2015 and a $7M Series A in 2017 before landing a massive $150M Series B last April.

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Zapata Computing 🖥️

In September, I wrote that Zapata Computing was in the process of raising up to $40M. That round has officially closed as a $38M Series B co-led by Comcast Ventures, Pitango, and Prelude Ventures.

Back in March, I highlighted where Zapata Computing sits within the budding Quantum Computing ecosystem when they raised an undisclosed strategic investment from Honeywell. Zapata is building a middle-layer software solution for companies building workflows on near-term quantum computers.

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RentalBeast 🏠

Rental listing software company RentalBeast just raised $2M, per a Form D. I wrote about the Somerville-based company in June when they raised $13.5M. They compare themselves as the equivalent of what MLS is to home sales, but for rentals. They curate a massive database of rental listings that helps agents, brokers, landlords, and tenants connect.

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Figur8 🦴

According to a Form D, movement intelligence company Figur8 has raised $6.2M. I wrote about them in March when they raised $1.5M. The company’s previous backers include the Boston Angel Club, E14 Fund Management, P5 Health Ventures, and Social Starts.

They offer a set of sensors called Surface Mechanomyography Sensors (sMMGS) that are designed to track musculoskeletal health with accompanying software.

People forget that Boston is killing it in the “quantified self” space.

• Whoop is the leading fitness & recovery wearable.

• Dynocardia is the only wearable that can continuously track blood pressure.

• Encora Therapeutics vibrates to reduce neurological tremours.

• Biofourmis wants to predict your health problems and fine-tune drug delivery.

• Sunu wants to give the blind echolocation abilities.

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Form Energy 🔋

Somerville-based battery startup Form Energy just announced a $70M Series C. I wrote about them in September when the round had $50M closed. The three-year-old company is building hardware and software products that enable long-duration solar/wind energy storage and optimization. They’re previously backed by Eni Next, The Engine, Prelude Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and others. The company is led by Mateo Jaramillo, ex-VP of Product on Tesla’s energy team. Its total raised is now $120M+.

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DataRobot 🤖

Eight-year-old enterprise AI platform DataRobot just closed a massive $270M Series F at a valuation of $2.7B+. The round was led by Altimeter Capital, with participation from other investors including T. Rowe Price, Blackrock, Silverlake, NEA, and Tiger Global. COO Dan Wright noted the company has “well over” $100M in ARR and is seeing high double-digit growth.

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Pickle Robot 🥒

Pickle Robot, a two-year-old company developing a parcel handling robot named Dill, just raised $2M from so far undisclosed investors. They previously raised $3.7M in May 2019 led by Hyperplane VC, with participation from RRE Ventures, DCVC, BoxGroup, Version One Ventures, and Third Kind VC.

While looking into them, I also stumbled upon Boston-based Southie Autonomy, who intends to raise a seed round in Q1’21, according to the Robotic Business Review.

More:

PJC’s Rob May writes why network effects are important for robotics companies.

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Aryeo 🤖

Aryeo, a year-old company building a marketplace for real estate brokerages to connect with photographers, raised $3.6M. It was founded by BC alum Branick Weix.

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Zippity 🚗

Zippity, a company that offers onsite car care services, raised $1.9M, according to a Form D. They help consumers and businesses get vehicle maintenance done wherever their car is parked, and they currently have a partnership with Castrol.

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Cogito 🙃

Cogito, a 13-year-old company that uses AI to assess the emotional intelligence of sales representatives, raised $25M led by GS Growth, with participation from Salesforce Ventures.

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Outcomes4Me 🏥

AI-driven breast cancer treatment app Outcomes4Me just raised $4.7M led by Asset Management Ventures, with participation from Sierra Ventures and others.

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Suvie 👩‍🍳

Suvie, the creator of a smart oven that cooks delivered meals, just raised $8.1M according to a Form D. You buy pre-prepared meals, put them in the oven, and the firmware handles the rest. They raised $720k+ on Kickstarter in 2018. It’s similar to Tovala.

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Labby 🐄

Labby, a Cambridge-based company building optical sensors for cow milk, raised $480K in seed funding from Agritech Capital — according to Crunchbase. Their handheld milk analyzer and accompanying software are used to help farmers understand their cow’s milk composition. It’s founded by MIT research scientist Anshuman Das.

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Thanks for reading!

That’s all from me until next week — If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on Linkedin and Twitter or check out my website at nickstu.art.

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